Building a Computer

By Chris Bybee

Building a computer consists of a few stages. The first step is to gather the components to actually build the computer. You will need...

Motherboard, RAM,m Harddrive or Solid State Drive, Processor, WiFi Adapter, Case

These are the essential parts of the entire build, they are all required to have a fully functional computer. There are extra components that you may want such as a graphics or sound card for better performance or gaming. In RAM selection you are usually looking at around 8-16 Gigabytes of memory. DDR is a measure of the speed of the memory. You will want to get at least DDR3. There are many choices in motherboards. One of the biggest considerations is the physical size of the board. You can select mini, micro and normal. This will depend on the size and type of the computer that you are going to build. The board has to fit in the case. 

In processor selection you may want to shoot for an AMD FX or an Intel core i5. These are good middle of the road processors from each of the 2 main processor companies and are the best bang for the buck deal that you can get. With great graphics and processing power, these two are both great choices. 

Finally, hard drives, these come in many sizes. 1,2,3,4 and 6 Terabyte models are fairly common. 1 TB is equal to 1000 gigabytes. Take your pick, but the bigger the number the more room you have to store files, including pictures, video and games. The speed of the drive is very important as well. The standard speed is 7200 RPM but the best you can get is 10000 RPM. This is important as it determines the speed at which your computer can access your files.

After you make the selections, it is really just a matter of screwing the parts together and cabling the internal components. Then you can start it up for the first time and enjoy your new computer!